SWG News

New Challenge: Title Track

Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .

Enamored as he was with language, the chapters and titles of Tolkien's broad range of works are often small works of art in and of themselves. Some carry the ponderous weight of legend, others evoke complex metaphors and associations, and some dance like poems upon the tongue.

This month's challenge offers prompts based on titles within Tolkien's many and varied works. We've selected 125 titles from books, chapters, essays, poems, and fragments of text to inspire your fanwork. Note that fanworks do not have to be about the work the title belongs to (although they certainly can be). As always, we encourage creative interpretations of our challenges, and you can use the prompts however you want.

Find the Title Track prompts here.

In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 March 2026. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.

 

Our Annual Amnesty Challenge: New Year's Resolution

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A new year often brings resolutions to achieve big changes. Our Resolutions challenge is much more moderate: reach for a creative achievement, no matter how small. Maybe it is a single drabble, a sketch, or a new chapter—the point is to begin a new year with an act of creativity and imagination!

Our annual amnesty allows you to pick from any of the previous year’s challenges. You do not need to use a new prompt to be eligible for this challenge. Participants can choose to complete any of the previous year's challenges. Did you miss a challenge you wanted to complete? Do it now. Did you start a fanwork for a challenge but never completed it? Here is your chance to finish. If you didn't leave any unrealized or unfinished projects behind you (congratulations!), choose from any of our 2025 challenges and start something new.

You can find the complete amnesty challenge guidelines and a list of 2025's challenges here.

You will receive a stamp on your 2025 collection for any challenges that you complete now, as well as a stamp for the New Year's Resolution challenge on your 2026 collection. When you post to the SWG archive, please make sure you select the 2025 challenge you're completing and the New Year's Resolution challenge.

This month's banner and stamps use images from the 18th-century “Chinese Arabesques” by Jean-Baptiste Pillement and Anne Allen, which plays with the theme of striving to reach the fantastical.

In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 February 2026. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.

"The Fëanorian Zine" Available to Read and Download

Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .

We are pleased to have been able to partner with The Fëanorian Zine to preserve the zine here, on the SWG archive, where it is available to read and download for free. A passion project dedicated to the house of Fëanor, it features fiction and art from thirty different creators, edited by JoeTamy and StarsOfArda into a stunning, full-color zine with over 150 pages of fanworks.

Congratulations to the editors and creators of The Fëanorian Zine for their beautiful publication! We know it will bring many hours of enjoyment over the December holidays!

Click here to download your copy of The Fëanorian Zine.

Call for Artists for the 2026 Challenge Stamps

Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .

All 2026 challenges now have an artist so sign-ups are now closed. Thank you, artists!

It's that time of year again! The SWG challenge mods have been busy concocting challenges for 2026 that we hope will inspire and intrigue our fanworks creators. As part of our challenges, participants receive small "postage stamps" in a collection on their profile, and for the past three years, we have invited artists to help us create those stamps. No matter your level of expertise with traditional or digital art, we welcome all volunteers who'd like to share their work with challenge participants!

If you'd be interested in creating a set of stamps for one (or more) of our 2025 challenges, here is how it will work:

  • Comment here (or otherwise contact the mods) and beginning on Monday, December 22, we will grant access to a bare-bones list of the 2025 challenges, the number of stamps needed, and the due date. If you want to remain absolutely unspoiled as to upcoming challenges, than this is probably not for you! We will send additional details on the challenge and specific stamps needed once you choose the challenge you want to work on.
  • Create your set of stamps. You have a lot of creative free rein here. Stamps must
    • include the month number of the challenge. Most of the time, we also include the challenge name (or part of it) too, but this is not required.
    • thematically match the challenge that month.
    • be appropriate for all audiences: no violence, blood/gore, nudity, or sexual content.
    • use our templates or a similar postage stamp template that is not drastically different from ours. (Please check with us first.)
    • use only art and images that you have permission to use, which means that you must own the copyright or have permission from the copyright holder to use the image for this project, or the image is in the public domain.
  • Email your completed stamps to the mods before the due date! We will send you a reminder about a month before your stamps are due.

Please note that while we can (and will) credit you as an artist on the challenge page and any announcements about the challenge, we cannot include credit on the stamps themselves or with every appearance of the stamps on our site.

You will also have the option of designing the challenge banner for that month if you wish to do so. (It is not required.) Banners are used on the challenge page, as well as in announcements on our site and social media about the challenge. Requirements for stamps apply to banners as well, with the addition that the banner should include the challenge name, dates, and text "SWG Challenge" or "Silmarillion Writers' Guild Challenge" somewhere on the banner. We prefer that the art used on stamps not be used on the banner as well. Banners should be at least 500px wide.

In participating in this project, you are granting the SWG the right to use your stamps and banner, including any art or photography that they contain, on our website and social media, in accordance with the terms described here. This includes minor modifications, such as resizing graphics to work with the layout of our site.

If you are interested in learning more or gaining access to the sign-up page, please comment here or contact us. Sign-ups are first-come, first-served, and we will close sign-ups on December 31 or once all have been filled, whichever comes first.

Great Beleriand Bake-Off PLUS! Instadrabbling

Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .

Do you want to create a challenge response for the Great Beleriand Bake-Off challenge but haven't gotten around to it yet? Are you off for the holidays and looking to hang out with some fellow fan-creators? Do you just love instadrabbling or need something to do on a Sunday? Himring and Dawn will be hosting the Great Beleriand Bake-Off PLUS! instadrabbling session this coming Sunday, December 21, at noon Eastern Time (find this in my timezone). They will be featuring prompts from the current challenge and more, aimed at non-bakers (though twisting the prompts back to a baking-related prompt is welcome too!)

We hope you can join us, whether you want to write, sketch, or just hang out and enjoy fanworks and conversation!

What is instadrabbling? Instadrabbling is a long-standing community activity in the Tolkien fanfiction fandom. A group of friends gets together on chat, someone throws out a prompt or four, and everyone writes a drabble (or whatever comes to mind). We share our creations in the server and admire each other's work. Instadrabbling is low-pressure and casual, and all are encouraged to participate to whatever degree they are comfortable. Instadrabbling responses shared on our server can be about any aspect of Tolkien's legendarium, not just Silmworks.

When we instadrabble, we meet on the #instadrabbling channel on our Discord server. Discord invites can be requested at any time from the moderators. All are welcome to join the Discord, whether you want to instadrabble with us or not!

Live Reading: Celebrations

Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .

We are in a season of celebration! Many of our members celebrate holidays during the month of December. For some of us, it is the season when darkness begins to again give way to light. For our group, we spent the last year celebrating our 20th birthday, and at the end of the month, many of us will welcome a new year and the sense of renewal that brings.

We will be hosting a live reading on our Discord server around the theme of celebrations. The reading will be held on Sunday, December 28, at noon Eastern Time. (Find this time in my timezone.)

Anyone is invited to read. If you want to be on the event program, you can sign up here. Fanworks on the program will be linked so that attendees can follow along, read your full fanwork if you are presenting just an excerpt, and leave comments. There will also be an open mic block at the end of the program that is open to anyone who wants to read.

  • You can read a selection from Tolkien or a fanwork that you wrote that connects to the theme of celebrations. Celebrations is meant very broadly. Selections do not have to focus on seasonal celebrations. Excerpts of longer fanworks are welcome but should be able to stand on their own reasonably well.
  • You must be the author of the fanwork you sign up. If you want someone else to read your fanwork, that is fine, but it is up to you to find a reader. (And please don't sign up until you do!) During open mic, however, you should read only fanworks you authored.
  • Please limit your reading to five minutes or less, thereabouts, and sign up one piece. Additional selections can be read during open mic if time permits.
  • You will need to join our Discord to participate. Not a member of our Discord? If you are an SWG member, log in and scroll to the bottom of the page for an invite link in the footer. Non-SWG members can contact the mods for an invite link. An open invite will also be posted on SWG social media shortly before the event begins.

We also welcome people to attend who just want to listen.

Program

Harp and Liar by AdmirableMonster
Stinging from his defeat in a musical competition at the Mereth Aderthad, Maglor unexpectedly makes friends with a deaf child.

Moth to a Flame by Zhie
Nerdanel’s first Masquerade party does not turn out exactly as she had hoped.

After the Festival by Himring
At Ivrin, during the aftermath of the Mereth Aderthad.

His Luxury by polutropos
The music enchants, but it is the minstrel’s silks that enthrall Maglor.

Excerpt from The Children of Húrin, read by Marguerite

The invisible worm by Our Ouroboros
Annatar causes a scene.

Detour by Dawn Felagund
It is the Fifth Age of Arda. Finarfin has unkinged himself and declared Tirion a democracy, and the Noldorin people are alive with the possibilities to be found in their new existence. Yet Maedhros, more than ten years after his release from the halls of Mandos, has retreated to a life of apathy and loneliness, until one day, Anairë comes to deliver him news that he never hoped to receive: His cousin Fingon has been released from Mandos.

SeaLight by Anérea
A Telerin Elf's first experience of the waters of Belegaer, at the end of the Great Journey.

Open Mic

Instadrabbling Sessions for January, February, and March

Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .

Anna (IdleLeaves) will generously be continuing to host monthly instadrabbling sessions on our Discord server on the first Saturday of each month! We welcome all creators to join us for an few hours of creating, squeeing, and hanging out with fellow fans on the following dates:

What is instadrabbling? Instadrabbling is a long-standing community activity in the Tolkien fanfiction fandom. A group of friends gets together on chat, someone throws out a prompt or four, and everyone writes a drabble (or whatever comes to mind). We share our creations in the server and admire each other's work. Instadrabbling is low-pressure and casual, and all are encouraged to participate to whatever degree they are comfortable. Instadrabbling responses shared on our server can be about any aspect of Tolkien's legendarium, not just Silmworks.

When we instadrabble, we meet on the #instadrabbling channel on our Discord server. Discord invites can be requested at any time from the moderators. All are welcome to join the Discord, whether you want to instadrabble with us or not!

New Challenge: Great Beleriand Bake-Off

Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .

Ready? Set? Bake!

For the next two months, we invite you and your favorite characters out to the tent to demonstrate your prowess in baking … metaphorically, that is! (Though actual baked fanworks are of course welcome!) This challenge will feature a daily prompt calendar of baked goods from around the world, many of them suggested by our members.

Sundays are the exception—on Sundays, there will be a baking-themed comment challenge. Notify the mods if you complete a comment challenge—there are stamps for each individual comment challenge! Comment challenges apply to any fanwork on the SWG archive, not just Great Beleriand Baking Show challenge responses.

Just like baking, you can make this challenge as intense or easygoing as you like. You do not need to complete every prompt and can pick and choose as you'd like from the prompt calendar. Prompts do not need to be completed on the day they are posted. Post early! Post late! Perfect crumb and soggy bottoms are all welcome. If you'd like Paul Hollywood-level intensity, you can of course try for Star Baker and do all of the prompts.

Each day's prompt includes a sweet and a savory option. There is a description and sometimes a recipe (and sometimes several recipes) for each item. You are welcome to use any part of the prompt: the name of the baked good, the description, the recipe, stuff you learned from the links, anything. Fanworks do not need to be about baking or include the foods from the prompt. As always, you are welcome to get as creative with the prompts as you want, which includes twisting prompts, finding loopholes, and going in weird directions the challenge mods never imagined.

Finally, remember that the SWG is an international community with members from regions and cultures all around the world. If you prefer to swap in a recipe for a featured baked good that reflects how your region or culture makes that item, you are welcome to do so! However, please remember that there is no single "correct" or superior way to make any of these items. Let's approach this challenge with appreciation for the diversity of our community and the unifying human experience of sharing food to communicate love and fellowship!

Find the Great Beleriand Bake-Off prompts here.

Thank you to Grundy for this month's banner and stamps!

In deference to the winter holidays that direct many people's lives at this time of the year, our final challenge of the year always spans two months instead of one. Furthermore, in January, we will run our annual amnesty challenge when you can post fanworks for any of 2025's challenges to collect stamps you missed. Even though the challenge calendar will only run through 15 January, you can receive a stamp for your fanwork if your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 February 2026. At that point, you must step away from the fanwork and let Paullando and Pruefindel award your endeavor! For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.

Public Comment Wanted: Proposed Change to Registration Policy to Better Manage Bots

Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .

On a recent review of new account registrations, the moderators discovered about 20% of them have never logged into their account after it was approved. This is typically not a problem; it's not a drain on our data or resources, and most of us have registered for a website before, with best intentions of using it, and then just didn't get around to it. It is an expected part of running a website like ours.

However, there have been a few recent instances where mods have had to contact new members regarding their account, and despite multiple attempts, do not receive a response. This is often paired with suspicious activity that led the mods to initiate contact in the first place. (Double registrations within minutes of each other from the same IP are a common example.) These accounts appear legitimate in every other way: the field where we ask people to share something about their interest in Tolkien (there to weed out bots) includes something legit-sounding about Tolkien or fanfic or both, and the username or email are Tolkien-related or -adjacent.

We deal with bot registrations regularly and have for the life of this site. Typically, bots go for quantity rather than quality and are therefore easy to spot and simply delete. However, the rising capability of AI tools means we are likely to see bot registrations that are harder to detect.

As a moderator team, we are absolutely okay with people registering and then never using their accounts. But we are not okay with harboring bot registrations, especially AI-assisted bot registrations. The SWG opposes the use of AI that harms fans and creators, and once approved, these accounts do have access to site features like leaving comments, sending messages to other members, and posting their own works, which makes them a risk to our members who are real people and using the site appropriately.

Given this, the mods propose the following change to our Site Etiquette and Terms of Service:

  • If six months pass and a new account is never logged into, we will contact that person using the email registered on the site to allow them to keep their account.
  • If we receive a reply, we will keep the account open. There is no obligation for the member to log into the account or use it or maintain any minimum level of activity.
  • If we don't hear a reply within two weeks, we will delete the account.
  • Note that this applies only to new accounts that have never been logged into. Once a person logs into their account, they can keep it forever and use it as much or as little as they like.

The moderators are looking for thoughts, concerns, and alternate ideas for how to manage this situation. Please feel free to comment here, use our Discord #town-hall channel, or email us at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org. We will leave the public comment period open until at least November 17.

New Challenge: The Only Thing to Fear

Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .

Fear developed for a good reason, to keep animals—including people—safe in dangerous and uncertain situations. For our characters in Arda, some of those fears make perfect sense in their world. But as we know from our world, fear can also manifest in maladaptive ways, causing us to react strongly when there is no danger present or even make unsafe choices to avoid the object of fear.

For this month's challenge, creators will make a fanwork about fear using one or more of the common fears from the prompt list below. While your fanwork should involve fear in some way, it does not need to be scary, and as always, we encourage creative interpretation of challenge prompts.

You can find The Only Thing to Fear challenge prompts here.

Thank you to Grundy for this month's stamps and Janeways for the banner!

In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 November 2025. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.